The Scars We Bear
by BrutallyRomantic
Summary: "It doesn't have to be love, it doesn't have to be anything, but for once fate has granted us a choice and I am terrified that I will make the wrong one." - (SwanQueen/eventual M)
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own no part of Once Upon a Time or any of its characters, I merely have fun playing with them.

The summer sun beat down from the heavens, unhindered by foliage in the cleared area leading down to the beach. Reflecting off of the water like a million shards of broken mirror, the sunlight had summoned most of Storybrooke. Assorted townsfolk played in the shallower water, others laying down blankets for a picnic or working on a tan. Summer had struck hard, and in a state so very well known for its unforgiving winters and short periods of blissful summer, each and every citizen was determined to get the most out of the rare heat.

Shielding her eyes with one hand, squinting in the brightness due to her own forgetfulness and lack of sunglasses, Emma shouted and waved to the joyous boy jumping in the gentle waves. He seemed content enough as he returned his attention to roughhousing with several other children that Emma didn't recognize at this distance, leaving the blonde to find a spot on the sand. Spotting a large orange and green striped umbrella and familiar dark hair spilling over the back of a beach chair under the shade of said umbrella, she dragged her large tote higher on her shoulder.

"Hey there", Emma said happily, as she set up her own chair opposite the first. Regina's eyes weren't visible under the heavily shaded sunglasses, but the tilt of her head and a vague quirk of her lips was evidence that she was not unaware.

"Hello, Emma", she acknowledged the blonde's greeting with a more genuine smile. Settling down in her chair with a happy sigh, Emma took a moment to enjoy the blatantly relaxing atmosphere. No curses, no crazy witches, no ice monsters, nothing. If it weren't for the occasional disputes over things not even remotely interesting enough for Emma to remember at the moment, the town would have no need of a Sheriff at all.

"This is nice." The statement hung in the air, and Regina turned her head to look at the other woman with an expectant expression, as if waiting for her to continue with her thought. Feeling eyes on her, Emma met Regina's gaze with a content smile.

Seeing that no more words would be forthcoming, the brunette returned to watching Henry play with a bemused, "Indeed."

Sitting back up and reaching into her bag, Emma withdrew a bottle of sunscreen and proceeded to remove the sundress style cover up she had been wearing over her bikini. The short shorts and bandeau top clung to her muscled frame with ease, the yellow colour nearly matching that of her car. She applied the lotion generously, having already had her share of sunburns in her younger days and not wishing to experience that hell again.

Reaching her legs, Emma made sure to work in a hefty amount of lotion around a thick silvery scar that stretched down the outside of her left thigh from the knee nearly to her hip. That last thing she wanted was to bleach the skin once more and let the thing get even brighter.

"What happened there?" Regina's voice was calm, deceptively so, but as Emma glanced up she noticed a new sort of rigidity in the woman's posture. Only seconds ago she appeared as any woman might as she relaxed on the beach, but now there was a tension that surrounded her like a shroud, confusing the blonde.

"What? This?" She was baffled as to why Regina would have adopted such an appearance, why the sight of an old scar would leave her so..stiff, but she had no problem with answering. "I was hit by a car as a little kid, the guy was able to slow down enough that it didn't kill me, but I did break my femur in a couple places. They had to put a metal rod in there and everything." Shrugging off the incident, as it had been decades ago, Emma continue to apply her lotion.

Regina, however, was using every ounce of willpower she possessed to keep from stroking down the side of her own left thigh, remembering against her will the accident she had at the tender age of four, falling from a horse who then proceeded to step on her thigh unintentionally. It had been awful, and in her mind's eye she could see the scar there still, stretching from her knee and disappearing as it reached her hip.

In the hours that followed, Regina stole glances whenever she was safely able, as if the scar might disappear if she stared at it as much as possible. Emma was leaning back in her chair, eyes closed, chest rising and falling in the slow rhythm of deep sleep. It might have been endearing to see the blonde so relaxed only feet from the woman who once wanted nothing more than to see her dead, and yet the brunette could not think this. So preoccupied was she, that she did not notice Henry emerging from the waves and running back up the beach and towards her.

"Hey mom! Can I have a sandwich?" Startled out of her reverie, and jerking her eyes quickly upwards to meet her son's, she blinked in a moment of utter incomprehension before favoring him with a wide smile. Henry lingered for another long moment wearing a strange expression before taking the sandwich that Regina had dug out of the cooler beside her and dashing back to the friends beckoning him from the water.

Just as suddenly as it had thickened, the atmosphere seemed to return to normal, and Regina thanked all the powers that were there to listen that Henry had not questioned the way she was staring at Emma's legs. Well, -leg-, but it was still a relief that the boy was much happier splashing about in the water and not her thoughts.

Emma did not stir until the sun was halfway to setting, stretching her arms above her head and then casting a sheepish look towards her brunette companion. Regina, for her part, was doing the very best impression of disinterested and casual, a book laying open on her lap as if it had been her sole focus, rather than a quick distraction the moment she noticed the blonde waking from her slumber.

Flinching as she stretched, Emma groaned and pressed a finger on her thigh, watching the mark turn white and then pink again. The sunburn was unpleasant, but it was her own fault for falling asleep. Resting her arms gingerly on the armrests of her chair, the blonde closed her eyes again and asked, "How long was I asleep?"

"Two and a half hours", Regina replied, a vague amusement creeping into her tone and twitching at the corners of her mouth. Groaning again, Emma's voice whined, "Why didn't you wake me up?" Lips curling further into an amused smile, the brunette lifted a brow that Emma couldn't see. "I'm not your mother, Emma. You should know better than to fall asleep in the sun, even under an umbrella."

Emma caught the back end of Regina's pointed look as she opened her eyes to glare in a playful manner.

"If you want to get technical, you're right, you're not my mother", her eyes brightened as she grinned mischievously, "But you /are/ my step-grandma so…" If she wasn't so used to the scowls and death eyes that Regina so loved to hand out, Emma might have melted into a little puddle of fear right in her chair, but as it was hardly her first time being subjected to the woman's wrath, her grin merely widened.

Picking up her book, Regina feigned as if she was thoroughly engrossed in the novel, ignoring Emma completely. Emma was quiet with her grin for a few seconds, assuming that Regina would strike back with her words if she waited. However, as the seconds passed, the blonde's grin faltered.

"Come on, Regina.. It was a joke." Snorting in disbelief, Regina rolled her eyes and continued to stare at her book. Emma tried again. "I'm sorry." Dark brown eyes slid just far enough to give the blonde a sidelong glance, assessing her sincerity. Closing the book with a sudden snap that made Emma jump, the brunette placed in delicately back down on her lap.

"I would appreciate it if the complexities of the familial ties in this town were not used as a way to poke fun." Regina's no-nonsense tone left Emma feeling sufficiently scolded, evidenced by the sad puppy-like expression she had adopted. Rolling her eyes again, Regina dropped her book back into the bag beside her and stood. "I'm going to swim," she stated simply, shedding her lacy coverup and starting off down the beach. As if an imaginary leash had been tugged, Emma stood as well and took long strides to walk alongside the other woman.

For the barest hint of a heartbeat Regina felt a surge, but it was forgotten as she reached the water. Wading through the shallows with ease, the brunette dove. Surrounded by water, light and the vague shadows that shifted along the sandy bottom in time with the waves, Regina stopped and simply savored the unstill quiet and the simplicity that she so longed for.

A watery vision of a thick silvery scar continued to thrust itself before all other thought, or lack thereof, ruining the moment. Regina's lungs burned for air sooner than she would have liked, forcing her to surface. She was greeted by the sight of Emma losing a splash fight, horribly losing, against Henry and the friends with whom he had been playing. Shoving the scar and all related thoughts aside for the time being, Regina swam towards the laughing blonde with the intent to save the Savior from children.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Once Upon a Time or its characters.

The tap tap tapping of her pen against the desk set a soothing metronome that Emma's pulse attempted to match. It wasn't made any easier by the unforgiving stack of papers towering and threatening to spill from her 'in' box, looming and casting a tedious sense of utter monotony over the entirety of the office. For the last several hours, longer than she cared to admit, Emma had caught herself staring out of the window longingly, her normally acute ability to focus failing her. The rub of her jeans against tender, still pink, flesh reminded her of two days prior, an utterly normal day in every way, right down to the sunburn she still sported. Uncomfortable in the restrictive clothing, Emma fidgeted in her seat, the bittersweet reminder of the fun she could be having doing nothing good for her mood.

With pleasant memories of the beach day came also the image of Regina, laughing and splashing nearly as much as Emma. The blonde could have commented, teasing the woman who was generally so reluctant to let go, and she almost did more than once, but in the end, she decided that not pointing out the out of character relaxation might make it easier for the regal woman to enjoy herself without pretense. She had even worn a proper swimming suit. Sure, it was a one piece, but the intertwining straps that formed the back made it anything but plain, and Emma doubted if she could have pulled off the same suit.

"Am I interrupting something?" The masculine voice might have been a gunshot for how it startled Emma. Her pen dropped as she whirled in her chair, surprise turning into a scowl as the laughing face of her father drew closer. Holding a hand over her suddenly pounding heart, the blonde shook her head and glared.

"Don't /do/ that to me! God.." Running her hands through mussed hair and leaning forward to put her elbows on her desk, Emma breathed out another calming breath. "What's up?"

David paced a few steps in front of the desk, humor fading into a sort of discomfort that Emma was not accustomed to seeing. This alone had her sitting up, posture stiffening as she pierced the man with a decidedly more serious expression. "Is everything okay?" A knot formed in Emma's gut as the man fidgeted where he stood (making it obvious from whom Emma inherited the habit), a guilty look leaking through the façade he wasn't very talented at keeping up.

"It's your mother.." he trailed off, eyes looking just to the side of Emma's, then to the wall, desk and back to the space next to Emma's head. The woman stayed silent, nodding as if to urge him to continue. Sighing heavily, David gave up his attempt to make the situation sound better than it was. "She wanted to know when you were going to tell us that you and Hook are serious. She kept threatening to come down here and ask you, and I might have said that that wasn't a good idea, and that we should let you share in your own time, and she might be sort of mad at me now."

There was silence, and then it was banished as Emma burst out laughing. Seriously? David's guilty expression twisted from embarrassment into irritated anger, arms crossing. "What? You don't think we deserve to know?" The blonde's laughter subsided slowly under the actually angry question, fading completely with the realization that he was truly serious.

"Really? I'm a grown woman, David, and I don't think I need to be reporting to my parents about my love life." Or lack thereof. David, obviously unsatisfied, the beginnings of hurt clouding in his eyes, propped his hands on his hips.

"We don't expect much, Emma, but we do like to know what's going on. We love you and we just want you to be happy." Now guilt seemed to have targeted Emma as its next victim.

"Alright, fine. You can tell her that Hook and I are..serious." Prompted by guilt, Emma gave David the answer she assumed that /both/ of her parents were looking for. It might not have been entirely true, but it wasn't entirely false.

David's eyes lit up as he swooped forward to pull Emma from her chair and grasp her in a tight bear hug. On any other day it might have been nice, but having just /almost/ lied to her father, Emma was only feeling restricted. Returning the hug halfheartedly and bidding the man farewell as he left to dash home and share the news with his wife, Emma slumped back down in her chair once he was gone.

If she didn't know any better, she would have sworn the pile of paperwork was getting taller.

"And then we found a live starfish and Ariel told us it was asking us to put him back, so we did. But there are so many cool shells deeper in and Ariel helped us find some!" Henry chattered on, leaning on the kitchen counter as Regina moved about, preparing dinner. Henry had been exceedingly excited after spending the day on the beach, and for the last two days he had returned, albeit today without his mother. That the boy was excited about anything was a balm to Regina's vaguely jealous heart as she continued to hear about the adventures that he had shared with his friends. Of /course/ she wanted to spend every moment possible with her son, but it was hardly possible with a town to run.

As she drained the freshly made pasta in the sink, Henry paused, taking a breath, and then begged for what felt like the dozenth time at least for Regina to come to the beach as well the following day. It hurt to say no, hurt to see his face fall a bit, but she made it better fairly quickly by suggesting she bring his friends over at the end of the day for dinner.

Henry knew exactly what that entailed. Regina didn't endorse sitting in front of the television while eating a meal, but when Henry brought friends over she always gave in and allowed them to watch a movie while devouring whatever delicacy she had concocted. Bouncing on his toes, Henry exclaimed and ran from the kitchen to call his friends and inform them of the incoming feast.

A smile stretched helplessly over Regina's face, an inevitable expression wherever Henry's happiness was involved. Even now she marveled at how fulfilling it was to make someone else happy, to make her child jump and smile and grin and laugh. She was haunted more often than not by the warning she had received from Rumplestiltskin all those years ago, a warning that she would never fill the hole in her heart that the dark curse tore open. There were days when she still worried over whether this was true. However, on those days she had merely to look at the boy she had loved and raised, and there was hope enough to cluster within that hole, and almost make her feel as if it were never there in the first place.

As she placed the finished meal out on the smaller table she and Henry tended to use rather than the long dining room table, Regina called out to Henry to come eat. The still bouncing boy was brightly smiling and did not cease chattering all through the meal despite reminders to chew with his mouth closed. As a result, Regina went to bed after cleaning up the meal with a smile of her own and (for once) less than hollow hope that she would be able to sleep soundly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT in any way, shape or form.**

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Regina scoured each and every book she had in her vault, picking through old languages and dry material meticulously. Tired eyes drooped a little more as she flipped another page, she had been at it for hours, and if she had a window in her vault she might have witnessed the sun rising.

Slamming another tome shut and setting it aside with the other several dozen books that had not been of any use, the frustration that had been building in the most recent hours was only growing.

Two weeks had passed since she first laid eyes on Emma's scarred leg at the beach. She had forgotten about it almost instantly, but the night before had granted her an unexpected reminder and left her burning with questions.

 _Regina rarely dreamed anymore, not in the many years since she had first cast the curse that created Storybrooke. This night though, it came with a more clear and vibrant dream than she could ever recall having._

 _Shuffling along slowly, she moved with a crowd of women, all clad in khaki clothes. A prison uniform. Her eyes were fixed on the floor, hands over her belly as if to protect the child within from being jostled about too much. The ability to control her eyes seemed out of her reach, but she could just barely make out the fact that her belly was swollen immensely, there was no doubt that she would be having this baby any day._

 _Dread clutched her throat, though she couldn't decipher the cause of such anxiety. Her insides squeezed. A contraction. Breath growing heavy, she proceeded to walk into the bathroom to relieve herself, the baby was sitting directly over her bladder. As she walked towards an empty stall however, she caught a flash of her reflection, and suddenly she could control her own movements. Turning as quickly as possible with her heavily pregnant belly, she approached her reflection. Fingertips traced her face in the mirror, but it wasn't her face. In the mirror, Emma was reflected back at her, wearing the same confused expression and ghosting her fingers along one cheek._

Waking abruptly to the sound of her alarm clock, Regina cursed and slammed the snooze button. Holding a hand over her heart, the woman took a moment to compose herself before replaying the swiftly fading dream in her head. Her hand dropped immediately to the scar on her leg, tracing it as she had her face in the dream. Anybody else might have assumed that it was just that, a dream. However, Regina had learned a long time ago not to take anything for granted.

With her mission of discovery planned, a burst of energy lent itself to her morning routine, enabling her to get ready in half the time she normally required.

Having spent the day in her vault, Regina hadn't eaten, and no sooner did this thought cross her mind than she heard approaching footsteps. Watching incredulously as the very topic of her train of thought, and the catalyst for all of her research, entered the room with a smile and a bag from Granny's, Regina's fears were confirmed. There was absolutely something happening that was _absolutely_ not normal.

"Hey, I thought you might be hungry." Emma offered the brunette the bag. Regina accepted it slowly and simply held it as she asked with wonder, "How did you find me?"

"I went to your office first and they said you hadn't been in all day. It's not really that hard to figure out." The blonde perched on the edge of the table Regina had been using, pulling a burger for herself out of the bag. "What are you doing down here anyway?" Emma took a large bite of burger, twisting to try and see the titles of the books scattered across the table.

"Nothing", Regina answer briskly, pushing the books nearest to her away. An unconvinced raise of an eyebrow from Emma drew out a scowl on the Queen's lips. "Why?"

Emma shrugged and answered around the half chewed bite in her mouth. "Just curious. There aren't any new crazies running around, so I just figured you were researching something if you were here all day."

Unbeknownst to Emma, she had hit the nail on the head, but it only fed Regina's irritation.

"Thank you for the food", she drawled the words, "But I really have to get back to work, so if you could just.." Regina gestured at the way out. Shifting from casually calm to vaguely hurt, Emma still pressed.

"Come on, just tell me. Maybe I can help?" She spoke hopefully, though inside she knew there was a very slim chance that she could do _anything_ to help the woman that she could not already do on her own. "We make a good team, remember?"

The statement was innocent enough, but Regina knew just how true that sentence could ring. Pinching the bridge of her nose in an effort to fight her forming headache, Regina let out a clearly exasperated sigh. What was the harm in telling Emma, really?

"You remember at the beach a couple weeks ago? When I asked about your scar?" She spoke cautiously, continuing as Emma nodded. "Well.. it just so happens that I have a scar as well, one nearly identical to yours." Nodding again, the blonde was eager for Regina to get to the point. Regina was not the kind of person to waste words, so Emma was careful not to interrupt despite her surprise. "I do believe I can remember reading somewhere that two people with matching scars can produce their own form of magical bond, more specifically, the scars received as a child, or as a result of a traumatic experience."

Regina gauged the blonde's reactions as she explained, heartened to find that the woman was at the very least listening.

"I've been trying to find out some more about this supposed 'bond' but as you can see.." Regina waved a hand at the huge piles of books everywhere. Emma did not respond at first, not until it struck her like lightning.

"Wait a minute.. a bond? Like.. " She didn't finish the thought. "What kind of bond exactly?"

Regina shrugged helplessly, leaning back in her chair. "You know as much as I do at this point." Eyes directed thoughtfully at the stacks of books, Emma asked, "Could this be something really bad, or really good?" A roll of brown eyes answered back as Regina repeated herself, "I don't _know_ , Emma."

Burger forgotten, Emma slid down from the desk and clapped her hands together with determination. "Right, so let's find out."

"As much as I admire your need to be a hero in every possible situation, I don't see how you would be able to help. Especially seeing as you don't know what to look for." Stating this matter-of-factly, Regina stood to retrieve the next batch of books, leaving behind a slightly wounded Emma.

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Glancing down at her phone every couple of minutes, Emma waited impatiently for Regina to find answers. After the woman had flat out refused her help and shooed her away, Emma had been a bit hurt, but irritation won out after awhile. Who was Regina to say that she couldn't help?

Working herself up with each passing minute without a message from Regina, the blonde was nearly ready to go storm the vault when the station phone rang.

"You've reached the Storybrooke Police Station, this is Sheriff Swan. Could you please state the nature of your—" Emma was cut off by a scream before the call ended with a disturbing suddenness. Instantly on high alert, Emma raced from the station as if there were hell hounds nipping at her heels. She knew that scream, and she knew just where it must be coming from.

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	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT in any way, shape or form.**

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For the third time in a minute, Regina's phone rang insistently from her pocket, and she had no doubt as to the identity of the caller. The first call had made the woman jump, not lending anything good to her attitude when she checked the caller id and saw none other than the blonde whose help she had refused. It had been barely three hours, and Regina was honestly a bit surprised that the woman had not called earlier to check on progress, despite having been sent away. The Sheriff could be brilliantly thick-headed. As such, Regina had decided not to pick up the call, only to regret the decision at the two following calls.

The call, which might have been endearing had Emma merely left a message inquiring as to whether she found anything, became an annoyance quickly.

"What is it, Miss Swan?" Regina answered with a cool, but vaguely irritated, tone, using the blonde's last name in hopes that she would understand that her relentless calling was unappreciated. However, Emma did not understand the brunette's tone in the slightest, her voice coming through the phone harried and hurried.

"Regina! Finally! Please, you need to get down to the hospital, now!" Put on alert by the blonde's obvious fear and standing from the table, Regina tried to question only to be cut off. "—just hurry!"

The magic was surrounding her before she needed to consciously will it, pulling her through that special slipping dimension to her desired location in a heartbeat. The front of the hospital was calm, but Regina was through the doors and following a flurry of shouts before she could admire the irony of the building's calm exterior.

She found Emma in less than a minute following the noise, finding the blonde wide-eyed with panic just outside of a set of double doors. Spotting her, the blonde rushed to Regina and gripped her wrist to tug her along as quickly as she could manage, slamming through the double doors in a manner that Regina doubted she was supposed to.

"Emma! What's going on!?" The blonde seemed as if she was too far gone to make words at all, much less sentences, but Regina tugged her to a standstill in the hallway and took hold of her shoulders. With the voice she generally reserved for speaking over a particularly loud town meeting, Regina demanded she calm herself enough to speak.

"It's..-it's.." Emma panted, eyes traveling in helpless panic up the hall. "-my mom, she's hurt.. baby's gone.. David found her.. the baby's gone!" She was working herself up into a frenzy again, but Regina could at least understand the reasoning. Her own heart picked up speed at the thought of the missing child, though she had significantly less fear. Who in town would really want to hurt the child of their supposed 'superheroes'?

"Emma! Calm down, where's Snow?" The question prompted Emma to grab at Regina's wrist again to drag her along, this time however Regina stayed by her side rather than be pulled like a rag doll. They approached a window that looked into a room buzzing with purposeful activity, figures swarming around a table on which a very still Snow White lay. Machines beeped and Emma pressed close to the window, nose nearly touching it, eyes fixed on her downed mother. David hovered around the edge of the flurry, the occasional nurse reminding him to keep back with all the authority that she could summon in the face of the frantic man.

Regina's gaze was as filled with purpose as the movements of the medical professionals, locating quickly the focus of their activity. At Snow's head, a surgeon worked to close a gash that was far too bright in contrast to the woman's pale skin and dark hair. Having freed her arm from Emma's tight grip, Regina rounded the corner to find the door to the room, pulling David through the portal despite his protests.

"Tell me what happened." It was a clear demand, brows drawn low over clouded eyes, voice deep and evidence of just how hard Regina was trying to be the controlled one in the situation.

"I walked in and she was bleeding and the baby was gone. She wouldn't wake up! I kissed her and called the doctor and she just wouldn't wake up!"

Regina resisted the urge to remind the terrified, panicking man that a head wound could not be cured like a curse. It was clear from his manner that he was not prepared to deal with this, and was made more clear as he drifted back towards the door to the room. His attention returned to Regina again as he snapped the words, repeating, "The baby is _gone._ " The tone was accusing and Regina might have been offended were it not already the middle of a dire situation.

Lifting her hands to stop the man, Regina asked, "Wait! Who would want to hurt your wife, or take your child? Who would want to do that to _you two_ of all people, hm?" She questioned him, as well as Emma, trying to turn the panic into something productive and something that might actually come up with some answers. Regina herself could think of at least eleven different enchantments that could make a person both invisible and unhearable, and it was her hope that somehow a stray piece of magic had merely hidden the child from discovery. And there was a distinct possibility, in Regina's mind at least, that the child might possess magic just like his big sister.

Thinking of Emma brought Regina to another possible conclusion. "Were you practicing any sort of magic today? Anything at all?" Immediately growing more fearful before shifting into the defensive mode that Regina was so familiar with concerning Emma, the blonde retorted, "Are you saying _I_ could have done this to her and stolen the baby away?" Regina lifted her hands again in automatic defense only to be drowned out by David.

"Hey! This isn't the time to argue!" Emma shot Regina resentful expression before nodding at her father and taking a breath to say, "No, you're right. And _no_ ," she aimed the word like a weapon at Regina, "I wasn't practicing anything."

Regina opened her mouth to speak again when a loud beep and several much louder shouts from the people surrounding Snow drew three grazes upward and towards a machine that displayed a flat line.

"No!" David shouted, jumping into the room and bullying his way to Snow's side. Taking her hand in a tight grip, he shouted for her to hold on. Regina watched with wide eyes as what she had desired for so long became a waking nightmare before her; Emma lunged forward much like her father and clung to Snow with angry tears.

The flatline jumped once, then again, before suddenly evening out as if nothing had happened at all. A silence covered the room like a shroud, only the steady, merrily beeping machine going on as if Snow had never been hurt. Emma looked up from Snow to where Regina stood with one firm hand on her arm and one on Snow's leg, catching the vague smile the woman wore as she successfully jumpstarted the woman's heart with the power of their combined magic.

In a second the medical professionals were a-flurry with activity again, though this time significantly bouncier in their movements around the still unmoving woman, as if her steady heartbeat was a happy metronome. Hands dropping to her sides as if they weighed something like a ton, Regina stepped away from the woman's body and slipped into the hall to sit heavily on a chair outside of the door.

It was another minute or two, or perhaps an hour or two for all Regina could tell, before Emma and David joined her in the hall. Cracking an eye open to glance at the two Charming's, Regina asked with exhaustion evident in her voice, "How is she?"

David was the first to answer, "She's stable."

"Thanks to you", added Emma with a twist to her voice that Regina might almost have classified as shy were she awake enough to do so. Regina responded only with a short sigh and a nod, "Good." Though she would have given her left hand to stay in the chair, and mused idly that maybe Emma would like her better that way, Regina forced herself to her feet and spoke to Emma, "I need to get back to my research."

Emma's face was unreadable for a moment, a long moment, before she nodded herself. "Alright." Glancing Regina up and down, she continued, "Do you need a ride?"

Too tired to contemplate more magic, or heaven forbid _walking_ , Regina assented, "Sure."

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Regina awoke on her couch, not the one in her office but the one in her living room, large and comfortable and covered with the blanket she kept folded and laid over the back of said couch. Confused as to her location, and the fact that she was waking but did not remember laying down to sleep, Regina sat up slowly. Her body complained, aching from the inside out, and she was reminded of Snow. And the missing child. A slow panic built up and threatened to consume her before she spotted the blonde slumped in an armchair not two feet from the couch.

Much as she had been on the beach, Emma was hunched a bit forward, head resting on one hand and mouth hanging half open. Again, Regina almost found it endearing. Almost. Her mind was tugged towards the scar on the woman's leg and the still undiscovered strength of the bond that Regina was not foolish enough to deny.

"Mom!" Henry's voice nearly startled Regina out of her skin, and Emma was similarly jolted awake at the boy's shout. Rushing towards her, Henry wrapped her in a tight hug that banished for another short amount of time that little hole in Regina's heart.

"Hey, kid", Emma greeted Henry as he captured her in a firm hug as well, sitting up and embarrassed that she had been caught sleeping so deeply. In the short drive between the hospital and Regina's home (Emma refused to take her back to vault, even if she argued, as it was only too clear that Regina was having a hard time with the simple task of keeping her eyes open), Regina had fallen asleep. In fact, she had been so deeply asleep that Emma had ended up carrying her into the house like a child. She had considered attempting the stairs, but the blonde's arms had started to burn and the last thing she wanted was to give Regina rude wakeup by dropping her down the stairs.

Emma had done what she could, bringing Regina to the couch that looked far more comfortable than the one in her office and covering her with a blanket conveniently laying over the back of the cushions. She hadn't intended to fall asleep, but after sitting for a minute to get back the wind she had lost carrying Regina around, her closed eyes had been the last straw. Sleep had taken her quickly and done so thoroughly.

With Henry busy chatting with Emma, Regina enjoyed a moment of calm. The problems of the outside were just that, on the outside. Just as quickly as it had come, the moment was gone, and Regina became swiftly occupied with thoughts of the missing child and if he had been found. It appeared that Emma was coming back to reality as well, by the look on her face as she made eye contact with Regina. Nodding in agreement to an unspoken request, Emma followed Regina into her office to begin planning their first move.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT in any way, shape or form.**

* * *

The vault echoed with the noises of fervent research, sliding pages and the murmurs of almost silent reading. Emma's back was sore from hunching over dozens of books in which she searched for god only knew what. Regina, on the other hand, was flipping furiously through texts like a woman on a mission. Most of the sound that bounced from the walls originated from her table on the opposite side of the room from the blonde.

"Please tell me you are directing as much energy into your search as you are into staring at me", Regina's voice startled Emma from her daydreaming, which had indeed left her eyes directed solely at the former Queen. An accusing eyebrow lift in Emma's direction sent her figuratively scurrying away, looking down quickly to continue reading the dry tome before her.

"Sorry." Regina made a noncommittal noise of acknowledgement and said, "Don't be sorry, be productive. This is _your_ brother we're searching for, after all." Gone unsaid was the uncomfortable prickling sensation that jabbed at the brunette every time that Emma's eyes found her. Reminded of the gravity of the situation, Emma's brow furrowed heavily. Giving her head a shake and huffing out of pure frustration, the blonde stood to her feet and paced several steps away from the book-laden table.

Glancing at the woman with a guarded expression Regina insisted, "I'm not kidding. There are a lot of books here, and I believe you to be the most useful of the Charming bunch when it comes to research." The backhanded compliment only barely nudged the surface of Emma's consciousness as she turned to lock eyes with the other woman.

"Who would take a baby? What for? Where the hell would they even go?" Emma grew more worried with each question, evidenced clearly by her contorting expression. Shutting the book before her firmly, Regina pinned the Sheriff with her eyes, speaking slowly as if the blonde might not understand if she didn't.

" _Miss Swan_ ", she started, making certain that she first had Emma's attention, "we don't have time for you to fall apart. If there is indeed some sort of foul play going on and the baby did not merely discover his own magic and cause some trouble, then he is depending on _us_ to find him. Do you understand?"

The revelation that her little brother might have magic of his own seemed to have just occurred to the blonde, strengthening her once more. "You think this might just all be some sort of accident?" Emma's voice was wary but hopeful. Satisfaction settled in as Regina realized that she had just managed to actually comfort the Savior herself in some small way.

"Yes", nodded Regina, "I think there's a strong possibility that that is what happened." Breathing easier, Emma nodded along and stepped back towards the table. Mind clearer, an idea came to her suddenly. Slapping her forehead as it occurred, she nearly cursed aloud.

"How could I have been so stupid?" she said aloud, prompting both confusion and an almost laugh from the former Queen. Before the latter could respond with a sassy remark, Emma said, "Can't we just use the same tracking spell that we used before to find Neal? You know, my Neal? In New York?" Regina's amusement vanished with a sour expression as Emma called the dead man _her's._ Emma didn't notice, and Regina made no move to comment on the word choice, choosing instead to poke a hole in the blonde's plan.

"First of all, the spell that was used on that occasion was in fact used through a magical artifact, one which belongs to Gold. While he may have become more agreeable over time, I highly doubt he would have any desire to assist us without fine print. Second, _I_ have found something similar to help already."

Emma's face fell and then grew hopeful in the spaces between Regina's words, and the hope in her expression did things to the royal that she was forced to shove down lest the blonde notice her eagerness.

Placing a hand on the book she had closed, Regina said, "In here there is a spell that should be able to track down your baby brother through the use of your own magic." She paused, holding up her free hand to keep Emma from interrupting. "There's a catch though. The only way this will work, is if he actually possesses magic of his own." Opening her mouth to respond, Emma was cut off by the loud ringing of Regina's phone. The women shared a glance.

Who would be calling Regina that wasn't already in the vault?

Regina answered with a short, "Hello?" She was met with a low silky voice, speaking urgently. Emma watched with a look that practically screamed of her need to know just what was being said, feet moving automatically towards the other woman. Ruffling her brow as Regina's features twisted with horror and confusion, the blonde demanded, "What is it?"

"This isn't possible", said Regina breathily, responding to both the caller and Emma. On her guard, the royal slid several steps away from the blonde, one hand raised as she listened to the still speaking voice on the phone. "You must be mistaken", she insisted, still struggling to understand the information being given to her. Emma, hating as ever not knowing what was going on, moved impatiently. "Are you certain?" Regina asked once again, eyes fixed to where Emma's frown was only intensifying.

There was an uncertain moment in which Emma saw the wavering in Regina's expression, and if she had been searching for it, she might have been able to see the motion that always preceded the cloud of purple smoke. However, the unsuspecting blonde was caught off her guard, and left alone in the vault without warning.

"What the hell?!" she shouted into the silence, her own voice coming back to mock her. Punching the numbers into her own cell phone, Emma tried to call Regina. Then her father, then Henry. She even tried her comatose mother's cell phone, receiving no answer. No explanation.

If there was one thing that Emma did not take well, it was being confused. She had had enough of that in the first year or so after her arrival in Storybrooke. After awhile, she felt as if she had a pretty good understanding of the town's working and its denizens, even with the occasional magical hiccup. But now, after the mental stress of her injured mother and missing brother, not to mention the lingering idea of some sort of bond between her and Regina, there was very little patience leftover for the mysterious royal's disappearance.

"Alright, fine! I'll just ignore you too then!" Emma shouted into the empty vault, stomping up the stairs. If Regina was going to be mysterious, she would just focus on her family.

* * *

The manor was still, as if no one were present, but a stealthy figure slid through the rooms like a shadow. Fingers trailed over pictures of Henry and Regina, lingering on the small but happy family before passing on to the next knick knack adorning the mantle.

"Hello?" Henry called out as he entered the house, having just made his way home from school, sure that he had seen someone moving inside. It wouldn't be unusual for his adoptive mother to be home at this time of day, as she did sometimes work from her study in the manor. But he was sure that she was with Emma, and he hadn't seen the yellow bug parked outside.

The shadow figure stilled in the room beside the boy, debating the wisest course of action. Certainly, the growing child didn't pose much of a threat, but if he mentioned anything out of the ordinary, even as small as thinking someone was home when they weren't, he might alert one or both of his mothers to their newest threat. At least, the figure liked to think of itself as a threat.

"Anybody home?" the boy called out again, taking off his sneakers and dropping his backpack by the front door. Apparently satisfied that no one was there, Henry moved into the kitchen to make himself a snack, unaware of the figure stalking after him.


	6. Chapter 6

Emma seethed even after they found him in his crib, crying helplessly for someone to come and rescue him, to hold him, to feed and change him, but most importantly to let him know once more that he was not alone.

It was Regina that first held the child, rushing to his cries with the instinct of a mother that had done so for so many long nights before, soothing noises issuing from her lips that left Emma in a bit of a hovering state of silence beside the brunette. The idea that such soft sounds, something that was nothing more than gentle and nurturing, could be coming from the woman that had once sworn to destroy her was a paradox of the sort that the Savior did not often find herself facing. But there it was, right in front of her, Regina's eyes finding hers moments before she was aware of it.

The smile Regina wore spoke more than words could have, the way her arms curled around the baby protectively, like a mother should do. Inadequacy was an ugly monster and it reared its head mightily as Emma imagined all those things that Regina had done for Henry that the blonde would more than likely have been completely incapable of.

Regina was truly a mother, a nurturer, a caretaker of the kind that Emma couldn't dream of being. Jealousy cut through with anger at even now being kept in the dark over the who and what of the strange phone call Regina received down in the vault kept Emma from hearing as the royal holding her baby brother spoke the first time, and the second, only allowing her to hear as Regina said her name again, "Emma?" with that same tone of worry that had been applied to the missing child.

"Neal!" David's cry broke the moment that had formed as Emma met Regina's eyes, tearing the tentative connection that might have been building. Rushing through the door to take his son, Charming shocked both women by shedding real tears of relief that he had not failed another child. Gaze moving between Emma and Regina in turn, he used one arm to hold baby Neal and the other to gather his daughter into a hug.

Feeling more out of place that she believed was possible, Regina shifted where she stood, surveying the little family with something approaching envy. That call.. The caller was far from being a stranger, and the information that Regina had been given as to the whereabouts of the child was certainly correct. The woman hadn't gotten anywhere in life by blindly trusting however, and she was hardly about to start. The 'how' of the call was definitely a mystery worth solving, no matter the warnings against seeking answers before she was meant to have them.

Denying the invitation that Emma extended quickly, Regina returned to her home rather than accompany the other three to the hospital to see if Snow had awoken and to prove to her that her son was certainly alright. There didn't appear to be any real danger as of yet as far as Regina was concerned, though caution was never a bad idea, bringing the woman to the decision to partake of a healthy night's sleep before retiring to her vault for the foreseeable future on a quest for answers. As Regina busied herself with the dishes that she assumed Henry must have left in the sink, she kept her mind stalwartly blank, refusing to think any longer on anything that didn't involve a sponge and a dirty plate. A quick shout up to Henry received a short answer bidding her good night. After seeing a father reunited with his lost child, Regina had the urge to run upstairs and hug her son tightly and never let go. The hour was late though and as she reached the landing after making sure that the kitchen was to her satisfaction, she could see no light creeping under Henry's door, a signal that he was likely asleep. Shoving aside her paranoid desire to reassure herself that Henry was truly alright, preferably through the means of a bone breaking hug, the woman prepared to allow sleep to take her as well.

Denial was the theme of the night as the former Queen washed her makeup away, swearing to her reflection that she was very happy that everything had worked out for the better and that it most certainly did not matter that the connection she shared with the Savior existed at all and that there was most definitely nothing to come of it but a friendship with an unusually strong bond. She could handle friends.

 _Regina faced a mirror once more, though not quite the same that she had the night before. This mirror was less object and more living thing, sliding between reflecting Regina's own face back at her and a face that she might have said was Emma's were it not for the darkness swirling within eyes that most certainly were not the correct colour. Her breath came with difficulty as not-Emma's face lingered before her in the reflective surface, gaze boring back into her hungrily._

" _It's only a matter of time now, Regina. It's coming."_

* * *

Emma's spine jerked in an involuntary shiver, she blamed it on the chilled hospital air. Did the building really have to be so cold? The temperature was not her priority at the moment however, her attention fixed on Snow's still form. Sitting alone beside the brunette's bed, Emma's thoughts wandered to David and baby Neal back in their home, safe. For now. After spending several hours in the hospital with his two children, David had left to return to his own home for bed. That was likely more due to Emma's insistences and Neal's fussing but, regardless of the reason, he had assented to leave his wife's side. It probably helped that Emma swore up and down that she had no intention of leaving anytime soon, even with the nurses' comments about how visiting hours were long over.

She was the Sheriff, so damn the visiting hours.

Emma ached to know just who it was that had told Regina the location of her brother. The only thing the woman had given away when she called her to bring her to the loft was that she had been given some anonymous information. Now, Emma was no fool. It wasn't difficult to deduce that the stranger on the phone had informed the royal of the baby's whereabouts. What concerned Emma most greatly was the fact that someone had known. Did that not point at the fact that the caller was, in fact, a kidnapper? Or perhaps something even more awful? Regina's tight lipped refusal to reveal what she knew pushed Emma to the edge and was threatening to throw her right over it.

Snow was unmoving, despite her vitals remaining steady, and the doctor couldn't explain the reason behind her lack of consciousness. Thinking of Whale brought a scowl to Emma's face, the man had never been very high on her friends' list, and though she could hardly blame him, the fact that he couldn't find a logical reason that Snow hadn't woken up was certainly not helping with her opinion of the man.

Another shiver caused her to writhe involuntarily in her chair, her leg bursting with pain for a split second. The momentary pain forced her upright, jumping from the chair as if she had been burned. "What the hell?" she half shouted, earning her a glare from the nurse on duty at the desk just outside Snow's room. Emma gave the side of her thigh a quick rub, fingers able to trace over the thicker end of the scar with ease under the tight jeans. The action brought to mind what Regina had said about the possibility of a bond between the two of them and her own wondering questions.

When she had asked for details, there had been a flash of something, the hint of a lie in Regina's eyes as she denied further knowledge, just enough to make think that maybe there was something more to this than just a bond. Fingering the ring on the necklace she never removed, Emma fidgeted idly as her wondering thoughts took on a life of their own. Obviously if Regina knew more and wasn't sharing, the woman had to have not enjoyed the answers she found. Again Emma had to question, though this time only to herself, what could this mean?

The rustling noise of sheets moving against each other coincided with the buzz of Emma's cellphone, vying for her attention. As Snow was more of an immediate concern, the blonde ignored the alert and stood to take the step to her mother's bed. Clasping one of Snow's hands in both of hers in an uncharacteristic display of physical affection, Emma watched the woman's eyes flutter as if to open. Long seconds passed as Emma waited for her to regain consciousness, her anxiety building with every one that ended with Snow not yet awake.

"Emma..." The blonde whirled as her name was spoken from the doorway behind her. Regina. Clad in nothing but a nightgown that hardly qualified as such as it hung just barely to the woman's mid-thigh, Regina had her eyes fixed on Emma. Small steps drew her closer to the blonde, bare feet making no sound on the tiled floor.

"Regina? What-" Emma couldn't complete the astonished question before Regina's steps brought her within an inch of the Savior. Up close, her eyes were clearly fogged over, compounding Emma's worry and confusion tenfold. Regina's head tilted, her glazed eyes dragging over the blonde's face, studying her. Hands lifted and grasped Emma's cheeks and before she was one hundred percent certain of what Regina's intentions were, the shorter woman tugged her close and set her ablaze with a searing kiss that might have lasted one second or one hundred thousand years as far as Emma was concerned.

As quickly as she had appeared, she was gone, vanished with a wisp of smoke the only evidence that she had even been there in the first place.

With wide eyes and frozen to the spot, Emma might as well have become a statue, her mind the only thing capable of any movement. Even so, her brain was struggling through what had just happened. Had Regina just-..? That was impossible. And what was worse, the tingle that had been born the moment Regina appeared had blossomed into a full-fledged forest at her touch. Emma's stomach flipped repeatedly, unable to find a comfortable position as her every cell buzzed.

"Emma?" Sometime in her stunned moments, Emma had not seen Snow awaken. The sound of her name thrust her back into a reality. A reality where Regina had just kissed her and.. Emma's world turned as she looked down at Snow who wore a bewildered expression. In a flash the bewilderment morphed into terror, high pitched screams emitting from Snow's lungs with a strength and power that the blonde did not think she should possess with her recent injury, despite the fact that it was healing abnormally quickly. Shrieking like a banshee, Snow clawed at the bed, struggling to writhe away from Emma with nothing but pure fear in her eyes.

The nurse manning the desk dashed into the room in a second, reaching for Snow as the brunette continued to scream and throw out her hands defensively. Streams of threats followed demands to get away from her and were trailed by yet more threats. Emma jumped back from the bed as Snow landed a hard kick aimed at her stomach, grunting with the impact. She wasn't able to make out a word Snow was screaming, but the intention of the words was clear. Get the hell away from me. The nurse gestured for Emma to go briskly as she tried her best to keep the woman in the bed, an unspoken command with Emma obeyed.

The sole thought in Emma's mind was that the town must be going mad, first Regina and now Snow. Even thinking the royal's name left the blonde feeling a bit lost in the blooming forest of emotion in her belly, but there was no other place to start with finding out just what was going on.

* * *

Her fist bounced on the door she hit it so hard, rapping her knuckles against the wood surface for a firm 60 seconds before Regina flung open the door. Sleep mussed hair and the bleary but pissed off expression made a clear statement that she had been sleeping, but Emma wasn't buying it. Immediately brushing past Regina into the house, Emma shouted, "What the hell is going on!?"

"Miss Swan! Will you kindly lower your voice? It's late and Henry is sleeping", Regina hissed, crossing her arms with a scowl. Emma was thrown by the response, lowering her volume almost a fraction before shouting again, "First of all, you get a call from someone that tells you just where my missing brother is and somehow magically knows that he'd be just fine, then you refuse to tell me just who this person is or how they knew this. And now you come to me and fucking kiss me in the middle of the night next to my comatose mother and you're worried about waking Henry up? Not to mention 'Miss Swan'-ing me! Have you completely lost your mind!?" Regina's eyes nearly bugged from her skull at the implication, jaw dropping.

"What on Earth are you talking about?" Arms tightening as if they could conceal the fact that her bed attire was really just modest negligee, Regina was on the defense.

"Are you kidding me?" Invading Regina's space without a second thought, Emma spoke inches from her face, brows drawn low as she looked for any sign that Regina was ill. Regina backed up instinctually, her back hitting the wall of the entryway and leaving her feeling very uncomfortably cornered. Fingers gripped the brunette's chin to keep her face still as Emma searched for oddities, lasting not long as Regina ripped her face away.

"Don't touch me!" Regina exclaimed. Emma was wild as she stepped in, closing off any escape Regina might have hoped for. "What are you talking about?! I was asleep!" Silence was her answer as Emma paused, mind racing as she looked at Regina's eyes like she might find an answer there.

"You're not kidding." Voice slightly lower, calmer, Emma was nonetheless intense in her examination. "You just came to the hospital and.. You don't remember?" A sickening thought settled in Emma's throat. "That had to have been you. No one else-" She cut herself off this time, refraining from stating that no one else had that same smell. Magic, Emma always assumed. Regina was far less panicked as Emma slowed, but she remained on the defense, hands before her, palms out and ready to summon up her magic.

"I came directly home and went to sleep after leaving you and your father", Regina asserted solidly, maintaining eye contact with the mad eyed blonde. "Whomever you saw, whomever…kissed you… That wasn't me." Disappointment crushed Emma in an instant, fear a close second in the emotional race. Shooing away the first, Emma made to deal with the second.

"Are you sure?" She meant to deal with the second in any case, but the words fell out before she could stop them. Her hands lay flat on either side of Regina's head on the wall, face close to the other woman's, a position that now felt entirely too intimate. Backing away a couple steps, Emma breathed heavily, glancing about as if the answer might be floating in the air just around her head.

"Yes, Emma. I'm very sure." Regina spoke as if to soothe a wild beast, concerned to say the least, but also dealing with an immense measure of attraction that had reared its ugly head the moment the idea of her lips against Emma's was presented. In this case it seemed that fear served as an adequate aphrodisiac, an inconvenient feeling to say the absolute least.

Unable to meet Regina's eye, Emma turned on her heel, paced a few steps away and then lifted her head to look in the approximate direction of Regina. "I..-" Regina raised a hand to keep her from talking, something unsettling her more than having a doppelganger running around kissing people.

Henry had not yet made an appearance, and this was highly unusual. The boy was a light sleeper on the best days, save for the time he had been put under anesthesia to have two molars removed, and he would no doubt have come running out of his room at the sound of a shouting match. "Henry?" Regina called up the stairs, ignoring for the moment Emma's furrowed brows. Receiving no answer, Regina's heart rate doubled. Taking the stairs two at a time with Emma just behind her, Regina threw open the door to her son's room only to find it empty.

"No no no.." she mumbled as she rushed to the bed and threw the blankets aside. The empty bed mocked her as she searched beneath it, in the closet, anywhere a growing boy might fit. The fear coursing through her was far greater than that she had experienced in the entryway, washing away all else that was not related to finding Henry. "Emma! Henry's missing!"

Emma pulled out her phone immediately to dial her son's number; it rang one time before it was answered. On the other side of the line came low laughter, unmistakably female and familiar in a way that Emma couldn't put her finger on until the stranger spoke.

"Don't worry about our son. I put him somewhere….safe." The voice coming through was her own, Emma gripped the mobile so tight she feared it might break under the pressure.

"Who is this? What have you done with Henry!?" Emma's voice cracked, prompting Regina to snatch the phone from her hands and shout into it herself, spewing threats laced with profanity. Emma stole the phone back and pushed it to her ear. "Tell me!" the blonde demanded, and was met with a 'tsk'.

"You should really work on your manners.", not-Emma responded simply, a smug twist to the voice betraying the smirk she wore. Emptiness filled the line, a clear indicator that the other end had terminated the call. Emma's hand shook as she continued to yell into the phone, dropping to her knees as it became more apparent that no reply would be forthcoming. Regina dropped beside her, taking the phone back and finding the same emptiness. She reached tentatively to wrap an arm around Emma's shoulders, rebuffed instantly as the blonde shoved her away hard enough to land her on her rear.

"Emma.." Regina began in a weak attempt to comfort and/or placate the woman, finding no words coming to mind to do so adequately. She had no need for words as Emma rounded on her, eyes blazing, "No! You tell me who in the hell called you, right now! This is no coincidence, and if you had told me earlier then we might have been able to keep Henry from getting taken!"

Flinching at Emma's tone and awful, infuriated expression, Regina made to tell Emma, stopping only at the not-at-all concealed accusation.

"Excuse me?" she retorted, standing to face the other woman. "No. You don't get to accuse me. And if I had told you before, you may not have taken my word for it that I knew where the baby was. Now, our son has been stolen, and I do plan on making his kidnappers pay. But for the moment, we can't afford to fight, understand? Our son's life might be on the line and I won't risk losing him just so that we can stand here and shout at each other!" Regina huffed, pushing past Emma and storming from the room. Halfway down the stairs she called back when she heard no steps behind her, "Are you coming or what!?"

Stomping steps pounded past her, Emma rounded on her at the bottom of the stairs, blocking Regina's way. Eyes dark with purpose and intent, Emma growled, "Tell me. Now."

"It was me!" Emma frowned but nodded with an immediate, "Okay." Regina cycled through surprise and then confusion, stopping at caution, "You believe me?"

"Yes", Emma nodded. "I don't think you heard, but on my phone, that was me." Regina blinked in surprise, having not heard the woman's voice, merely a laugh when she drew the mobile to her ear.

"It seems we have an epidemic on our hands. The only question now is: Is there one person shapeshifting into us, or more? Or maybe, just maybe, something far worse." Regina was all business, taking Emma's hand and bringing them both to her vault in the blink of an eye.

Emma stumbled as they landed, unaccustomed to the smoke travel and not wholly comfortable with it. "I hate it when you do that." Regina snorted without smiling, amused without humour. Her thoughts responded with a recalling of those unmeasurably short instances when their bodies were nothing but vague hints of magic twisting through the spaces between realities, mingling together as one for a blissful heartbeat.

Damn.

"Where do we even start?" Emma glanced around, books were scattered across every available surface. "How do we figure out what to search for?" Nothing. Emma shifted to look at Regina, seeing only more vault. Regina had vanished into thin air without so much as a sound. "Don't you dare do this to me again!" Nothing sounded when Regina returned a second later, appearing disheveled and distraught.

"Emma!" exclaimed Regina as her eyes landed on the blonde. "Oh god, it's so good to see you! How long was I gone?"

"What are you talking about?" Emma asked, taken aback entirely as the woman rushed to her and enclosed her in a hug. Willingly. What the hell. Regina's relief hesitated as she pulled away to see if Emma was pulling her leg.

"I was gone.. for so long."

"It was barely a second, Regina. Where did you go?" Body suddenly too heavy to hold up, Regina stumbled where she stood and grasped at Emma's arms before she stammered, "It was.. it was days." Uncertainty trickled into her expression as she questioned herself. "They said.."

"Who?" Emma asked when Regina trailed off, impatience increasing despite the woman's state. "Who said what?"

Regina shook her head, eyes squeezing shut. "God damn it. We're in big trouble Emma."


	7. Chapter 7

Regina had already been seated for five minutes, five silent minutes seated on a padded chair tucked into the corner of one of her vault rooms with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, in which to compose herself. In this time, Emma itched to begin the search for.. god, she couldn't even consider what they might be looking for in what looked like hundreds of volumes stacked through the winding vault. She remained close to Regina instead of surrendering to the itch, making sure to not get caught staring at the shaken woman.

Just a moment ago she had vanished in night clothes, very revealing night clothes that seemed to have burned the image of Regina's legs deep into Emma's inner eye, and now she sat, giving a little tremble every few seconds, clothed in what looked like a sackcloth tunic. Regina caught Emma looking, her eyes dropping quickly as everything about the blonde's searching expression threatened to find her out.

"Just tell me, Regina. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" Emma asked cautiously, wanting nothing more than to demand the whole story right this second, but not stupid enough to miss the way Regina shook as her eyes grew distant.

"Not physically", Regina mumbled in answer, encouraging as far as Emma was concerned. The blonde scooted her chair closer to the brunette and reached for her hand tentatively, less worried about triggering any pain through touch. "We don't stand a chance, Emma." The empty surrender in Regina's voice was jarring, so unlike the fiery woman Emma had actually come to admire.

"Of course we do. We've done amazing things with our magic, and this won't be any different." Emma rubbed Regina's palm with her thumb, trying to soothe some heat into the cold appendage. "I mean, come on. We took on a demon and won, and kept the town from exploding, not to mention defeating Pan. We're badasses!" Normally, Emma would probably be the first to doubt herself, if only because she knew the support from her family would remain no matter what. Now though, she considered what Regina really had in town. Henry, yes, but the boy was gone, kidnapped by god only knew who. And.. who else? Over time, Regina had grown.. less hostile with the townsfolk, but to expect support might be a bit much. Shame prodded at Emma's thoughts as she realized that she had never given a whole lot of thought to how very alone Regina really was in Storybrooke outside of her son, despite the occasional company of the Charmings.

Regina's face tilted up to look at Emma with an expression that the blonde couldn't read. Dark eyes searched her face, looking for… only Regina could say, and she wasn't. "You don't get it, Emma. We've already lost."

 _Stumbling as her feet found uneven stone with an unexpected suddenness, Regina whirled to ascertain just where she had appeared. Stone, stone, more stone, and bars. She recognized this place, this cage, even with the slight differences._

" _It's not the real thing, but I thought it was rather poetic, don't you?" Regina pressed forwards against the bars that served as a mockery of the cage that Rumplestiltskin had once inhabited. On the other side, she faced herself, her double's eyes locking with hers gleefully. "That's hardly appropriate attire for a prisoner", her double stated, waving a hand and changing the silken nightwear to rough prison garb, not unlike what she had worn as a prisoner in Snow White's castle._

" _What's going on?" the real Regina demanded, drawing a laugh from the other._

" _You'll find out soon enough, but I do find the idea of telling you and watching the truth destroy you to be amusing." The double paced alongside the bars, tapping the impregnable metal with her sharp nails, painted crimson to match her lips. "You've had quite the run of it, haven't you, holding onto the power that lies just beneath the surface." Regina glared between the bars. "Oh don't give me that look. You know there's more inside than what you've used over the years, you've even seen it on occasion you just can't get to it because of your insipid little fear of allowing someone close."_

 _Taking several steps away from the cage, the double laughed as a form slipped from the darkness just beyond her and slid an arm around her waist. Emma. But not. The true Regina gripped at the bars, pressing closer to get a clear look at the face she thought she knew. Emma's double was similar, but sharper, her cheekbones swooping and eyes not nearly as bright and open as the Emma she knew._

" _You see, we're not so very different, but I know what I want, and I'm not afraid to admit it." The Regina double pressed up against not-Emma, sighing as her finger traced the blonde's upper lip. Regina felt the blood rush from her body and into her face as she watched herself lean in and capture not-Emma's mouth with hers, neither caring a bit for their onlooker._

 _Grinding her hips closer to the blonde's, not-Regina growled in her chest and tucked a hand into her waist, tugging her as close as she was able. As she shifted to lathe hot kisses that blended into nibbles down the lengthy stretch of not-Emma's neck, the blonde opened eyes that had fallen shut to connect gazes with the true Regina over the double's shoulder, a lascivious smile twisting across her face as she lifted a hand._

" _You could be so very strong, so very powerful, so very..happy." Not-Emma murmured the words, but they sounded as clearly as if she had whispered them directly into Regina's ear, the brunette could very nearly sense the warmth of her breath on her neck._

" _What are you.." Regina was at a loss for words as her double pulled just far enough away from not-Emma's already discolouring neck to look back at her and match the blonde's sinful smile._

" _We're merely acting out what you never will, and taking that power which rightfully belongs to us. You're never going to be able to stop us, dear, so I encourage you not to try. No matter what you do with that special bond you have yet to truly discover, we are what you will become."_

 _As if ice had been dragged down the length of Regina's spine, chills engulfed her, bringing her to clasp at the bars once more. "I don't know what you want, or who you are, but I demand you stop wearing my face and show your own!" Sounding far stronger than she felt, Regina commanded those whom she had decided were strangers, thrusting the magic from her palms into the bars she held tightly. As partially expected however, there was no response from the spelled metal. Not-Emma released a laugh._

" _You're never going to get through those. Not without Becoming.." the blonde ran a hand up not-Regina's arm and shoulder, stopping only when her fingers came to rest on an exposed collarbone. "But we can help with that.." They turned together, approaching the cage with a predatory gleam in their eyes, prompting Regina to step back and avoid any touch they offered._

" _I am not going to become anything like you. And this…" Regina struggled as the image of her and Emma doing such things interrupted any attempt at clear thought. Clearing her throat and giving her head a shake, Regina fisted her hands and glared as mightily as she was able. "This is an impossibility, and I demand you return me and my son."_

 _Not-Regina scoffed, leaning close to the bars and growling, "He's not your son, he's_ _ **mine.**_ _" Regina slammed close to the bars with a shout, "No!" But the taunt had succeeded in doing what not-Regina wished, bring the true Regina close enough to grip by the throat. Her grasp was firm, not-Regina dragged her prisoner's face close and stole a demanding kiss that left the true Regina breathless once released._

 _Not-Regina sighed with pure satisfaction as she released the true one, who stood shell-shocked and wide-eyed, prompting a laugh from not-Emma, who up until this point watched the exchange with hungry eyes. "Ah…" not-Regina chuckled, wiping a smudge of lipstick from Regina's lower lip, "Your Emma has no idea what she's missing." Not-Emma leaned in to the frozen Regina, but the moment her fingertips reached for the woman's face she came alive again, jerking violently away from the blonde's touch._

" _Don't!" Regina cried, backing away from the bars and refusing to allow herself to be fooled again. "Don't touch me!" Not-Emma laughed, pressing to the bars with a whisper, "We're far from done with you, Regina."_

 _A wave of not-Regina's hand disappeared the two of them in an instant, leaving Regina alone to crumble down in the corner of the stone cage, helpless and lost in a place that so clearly wasn't hers to command, no matter that she shared a face with its apparent ruler._

 _With the doubles having vanished, Regina noticed for the first time the two guards that stood just at the edges of the circles of light that the torches mounted on either side of the wall outside her cage provided._

" _Hey! Hey, you two!" Regina called out to the men, trying to catch their attention. She loved nothing more than a stupid guard. Her chance at hope and escape was distinguished when one guard turned, revealing no face. He was nothing more than an enchanted suit of armor, and from where she stood Regina's magic was useless._

 _Giving in for the moment, Regina moved to the back of her cage, settling into a corner that allowed her full range of vision should the doubles return. She would get back to her vault somehow. She would rescue Henry, and she would return to Emma. Regina ran her fingers through her hair, resting her head in her palms as she tried to work out just what these women were, and how on Earth she was going to find a way to stop them._

* * *

Emma massaged Regina's palm with her thumbs continuously, as the motion seemed to comfort the woman to some small degree. The touch, though innocent, brought to mind the Regina that had come to Emma in the hospital, her strange expression and the way her lips formed to the blonde's just… Emma blinked quickly, scolding herself for thinking of Regina in any way but a protective one, a friendly one, most especially when it appeared that the woman had been traumatized by her experience.

Regina noticed, however, when Emma's face contorted, she saw the struggle shining in the blonde's eyes, and a large part of her wanted to allow a grin to pull itself steadily across her face. But not yet. Her thoughts went to the prisoner she had left behind, and the blonde who still needed to replace the one before her, to come out of her in a way that only she could make happen.

Not-Regina savored the touch of Emma's hands on hers, though she knew at this point the true Regina was influencing this innocent enjoyment. Trapped in a construct her own mind had created in a reality that slipped between the cracks of this realm and another while still remaining connected, the Regina that Emma thought she was couldn't have been farther away if she were on the moon.

Tilting her head to rest on Emma's shoulder, the fake Regina in the form of the true one asked the blonde in a low voice, "Will you just bring me home, please?" Emma was slightly taken aback by the willing expression of need, of weakness, but she complied with a nod and a, "Sure."

As Emma pulled into the driveway of the manor in her yellow bug, Regina slipped a hand on her knee, adopting a pleading expression. "Would you help me inside?" Emma, stunned by the newest willing show of weakness, was thrown for a loop and very nearly said yes before taking Regina's hand and moving it with a slow shake of her head. "I'll watch and make sure you get inside, but I should go continue with trying to find out what's going on. But I'll come check on you later, if you want. Okay?"

Regina's expression stayed even, but Emma could almost see the turmoil and displeasure bubbling just under the surface. The woman nodded, her hand giving Emma's a squeeze and lingering for a second before she slid from the car and walked up the path to her front door, hips moving in a manner just deliberate enough for Emma to take notice.

Emma stayed true to her word and made sure she entered before driving away, then pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed a friend's number, speeding just slightly more than she probably should have as she made her way to Gold's shop.

"Hey, Belle. I need your help."

* * *

"I'm sorry, I don't understand. You said Regina's missing, but you just brought her home?" Belle fixed Emma with a quizzical look as she rifled through the books on a shelf that had just a moment before been securely locked due to the information the tomes held.

"No", Emma tried explaining again, "I did just bring her home, but she went missing in the vault. I mean, just for a minute, but she came back all.. different." Emma's brows drew together as she willed Belle to understand, but the French girl seemed to be having trouble.

"But she came back, so what's the problem?" Emma groaned in frustration, her hand slapping on the counter as she was unable to adequately explain.

"She's just.. I don't know, something isn't right. Henry is missing, and she just wanted to go home. Does that sound normal?" Belle perked up as the information that Henry was gone was first revealed, but she was interrupted as Gold's voice filtered from the back room, the tap of his cane announcing his entrance.

"Henry is missing?" Gold was many things, but if he chose to protect something, then he was a force to be reckoned with. Emma pounced on the chance to get the slippery man on her side.

"Yes!", she started, "Henry went missing not long ago, he wasn't in his bed and I got a call that.." Emma cursed inwardly, she hadn't wanted to give up everything she knew so quickly. But it was far too late to stop now. "I got a call from someone saying.. She sounded like me, and she said she had Henry and that he was safe. But I don't buy it. This is impossible! Regina received a call from someone saying she was her as well, and now she's acting strange.. I need your help."

Bella appeared more than ready to jump on the rescue train, but Gold hovered in the doorway between the back room and the shop proper. "Are you sure this isn't some elaborate prank? I mean, the boy _is_ the son of the Evil Queen and the Savior, not to mention the fact that my own son was rather a prankster."

"Former Evil Queen", Emma corrected instantly before waving a hand. "And no, this is definitely not a prank, and if you're just going to suggest that instead of helping, you can go." Gold took a step forward.

"Careful, dearie. This is still my shop, and you'll use your manners here." Emma's face twisted before settling into sullen acceptance.

"Sorry. Please, help me. I don't know what to do next, and I'm afraid if something really is up with Regina, then asking her up front would just make it clear that I know something is wrong. That could jeopardize Henry's safety, and I won't do that."

"We're happy to help, Emma", Belle reassured, placing her hand over the blonde's and giving it a squeeze before shooting a pointed look at Gold. The man shrugged his shoulders.

"Very well then, where should we start?"


	8. Chapter 8

Most of what Belle found regarding personality changes that were related to magic seemed to point to possession, but Emma initially disregarded the theory. Acting strange was one thing, but there was something in Regina's face that was inherently her, and the blonde was fairly confident she would have noticed if something had taken over the woman's body. Other theories included everything from mind control to the flu causing hiccups in the royal's magic.

Emma held in her scoff, but Gold didn't. "You really think the Queen is so weak as to be affected by a cold? Enough to be distracted from the one thing she has done everything to keep? Henry's safety should be a major concern to her, it's certainly not as simple as an illness, that is one thing of which we can be certain." Though Emma wasn't wholly convinced, the possession theory was the only one that seemed to fit, other than Regina herself suddenly not caring anymore about what happened to her only son.

A thought struck Emma hard, one she hadn't before considered. Regina wouldn't be worried if she already knew what had happened to the boy.. She struggled with the idea, arguing against herself. What would be the purpose of disappearing Henry and kissing Emma? The odd behavior did add to the possession theory however, but what would have possessed her, or who? And for what purpose? A frustrated sigh tugged from Emma's throat as she rubbed her forehead.

"Do you know if she was involved in any sort of magic just before she began acting strangely?" Belle asked, eyeing Emma. "Or perhaps the two of you were up to something magical?" Emma's hands shoved into her back pockets reflexively as she thought back, only to glance up to Belle with a shrug.

"There was something that she was sort of researching just before Snow was hurt", she started, brows furrowing. "But I don't see how it could have anything to do with Henry disappearing. Especially not seeing as it was something that only had to do with the two of them.

"Well, it's something", Belle encouraged. "Tell us, please." Emma shifted from one foot to the other, growing uncomfortable. But why should she? Sure, she was going to reveal something that might be a little personal, and sure, Regina might not be pleased, but if it really helped..

Emma came to her decision and moved forward with it quickly, before her ever changing mind could decide otherwise. "Regina thought her and I might have a sort of.. a bond." Belle's eyes shone with curiosity, but Emma found it odd that Gold's did not. Her gaze remained on him as she continued, "We have a scar that's similar, and apparently—"

"A scar?" Gold interrupted, his surprisingly unsurprised interest leaving Emma displeased and wondering. Nodding, Emma said, "Yeah. It's the same, I guess, and she thought there might be something in an old book about it."

The blonde was acutely aware of Belle's sharp eyes, not quite piercing her, but definitely not in the dark as much as Emma might have liked. Though she had been overlooked often enough in the past, Belle had come to be a rather invaluable resource when it came to town saving, and a good friend in between disasters. It had been a little bit since the last time they both attended a ladies' night, the event often too boozy for either of them, but Belle knew what to look for in Emma's expression to find her thoughts. Darting gaze, avoiding eye contact, and the blush that only lingered vaguely along the line of Emma's cheekbones and over the bridge of her nose were the clear signs that she was embarrassed.

"There _was_ something I heard quite a long time ago.." Gold spoke with a barely concealed smirk, "Traumas that leave life-long scars can often forge a bond, though I've not heard of one that stretched across such a vast amount of time."

"Yeah, well, that's what was going on. Could it have anything to do with the weirdness or the fact that a couple people wearing our faces are walking around?" Emma's shoulders rolled in a nervous habit as she skirted the subject, trying to get her companions back to the task at hand.

"Maybe", Belle responded, reaching for another book. "I'll have to do some reading. Unless you know anything you're not sharing?" The last was directed at Gold, who looked to his love with a smile. "Of course not", came his response, but Emma's fingertips tingled as they always did in the presence of a lie.

"You sure?" she made as if to call him out on it, but thought better of pushing too far just yet. His face, though still smiling, hardened.

"Like I said, of course not. Don't you trust me, dearie?" Emma didn't answer the sly question, looking to Belle with a half smile.

"Give me a call if you find anything?" Belle replied with a nod and a reassuring smile, "I'll do my best." After watching Emma's retreating back disappear, the brunette turned to fix Gold with a lifted brow. "Are you certain you don't know anything about what's going on?" The man, still looking off towards the door to his shop, murmured, "I can't be certain. This type of magic is quite old and it varies from person to person."

"But you know something", Bella stated more than asked. "You should have told Emma." Gold didn't waver.

"I believe Miss Swan is going to need to figure this out on her own. She and Regina have been linked since before she ever set foot in Storybrooke. If she cannot get to the root of this magic, no one can."

* * *

A stop at the hospital after her visit to Gold's shop only served to discourage Emma further, the news that her mother was still unspeaking hitting her hard. The only thing that had made her react was Emma's presence, and that was far from a positive response. Due to the reaction she had had the last time she was faced with her daughter, the nurse had refused to allow Emma in to see Snow with her own eyes, merely assuring her that the woman was being well taken care of.

Her next thought was to check on Regina, the woman had been far from normal, and in hindsight Emma regretted leaving her alone. For all the blonde knew, the royal could have had brain damage from whatever it was that she had gone through. It was hard enough for Emma that her mother was silent and unresponsive, but if Regina continued the trend and kept on with the odd behavior, Emma felt like the floor might collapse beneath her.

The drive to Regina's home was short, providing Emma with exactly four minutes to think through how she was going to question the woman without triggering any sort of trauma. Parking, Emma spent another three minutes gathering herself, wondering if she really should be there, especially alone. Shaking off the thought, Emma scowled. Regina wouldn't do anything to her and, if her behavior was any indication, she would need a friend.

Nevermind that Emma was struggling to erase the memory of that kiss in the hospital, and the daze that Regina had been in. Nevermind the mental image of Regina in a revealing nightie that seemed content to live just behind Emma's eyes. Nevermind that Emma had been working through some decidedly more than friendly ideas since their late night encounter.

Regina answered the front door faster than Emma had expected, dressed to the nines. She shouldn't have been surprised really, seeing as the woman was always impeccably put together. But Emma had expected at least a little bit of dishevelment considering the fact that their son was gone, and likely with people pretending to be them. Henry was a smart kid, but what if he didn't realize right away that the strangers weren't his mothers? What if they did something to hurt him and he thought it was really them?

New and more horrible ideas cropped up by the minute, only _momentarily_ halting when Regina flashed Emma a bright smile. Gesturing that the blonde should enter, Regina stepped aside to allow her to pass. As Emma brushed by, she swore that Regina let out a tiny sigh, just soft enough that she wasn't convinced she had really heard it.

"Are you okay?" Emma asked with concern for the woman's mental health. They couldn't handle some sort of crazy denial right now. Regina's head tilted as closed the door, expression almost forcibly sobered as she was reminded of the situation.

"Right. Yes. Er, no." She glanced away from Emma, who ignored the tingling at her fingertips. "Would you like a drink, Emma?" The blonde followed Regina as she was already aiming for the study, heels clicking against the floor.

"Sure.." Emma assented, keeping her eyes trained on the other woman. There was definitely something strange going on. "So..", she began as Regina poured drinks, apple cider, "I was hoping that you might explain to me what happened when you disappeared. I know you were kind of shaken up before and.." Regina gave a small shrug as she passed Emma a full glass, sipping at her own as she waved a hand.

"I'm just fine, Emma. Really. I was a bit shaken up, yes, but everything is alright now." As she spoke, Emma had the distinct sensation that she was being given a once-twice-thrice-over, finding Regina's eyes moving over her with a slow but steady intensity that had her flabbergasted.

"Are you sure?" Emma countered, "Because you're acting really strange, okay? Just.." She wanted to say 'quit it', but would that come across as a hard rejection? The look Regina gave her then was questioning, a sultry question. Honestly, if she would have started with this at a different time, when everything wasn't going to shit… Hell, who was Emma kidding? Everything was always going to shit.

"I _promise_ ", Regina dragged the word out, stepping close and seating herself beside the spot Emma had taken on the couch. She set her drink aside, taking one of Emma's hands in both of hers. Emma was stunned as the royal drew the hand to her lips and placed a kiss on her knuckles, the most blatant display of affection she had ever presented. Really, the only display, unless the subtle touches to her back and shoulders counted.

"What the hell are you doing?" Emma's voice got just the slightest bit higher as she spoke, remaining still, frozen. As if that might make it all less strange somehow. Regina smiled, pulling the Savior's hand to her lap and caressing it between her fingers.

"I don't know", she said, the smile on her face twisting in affected confusion. "But maybe my disappearance.. I think it showed me some things.. Maybe what was important? Henry has always been my one True Love, but… I don't think that means I can't form other.. attachments." Her eyes dipped down before returning to Emma's. "I feel safe with you, Emma."

Emma, where she was still making an impressive impression of a statue on the couch, was so far gone that she hadn't a clue what to say. On the one hand, this normally emotionally repressed and self-contained woman was opening herself up to Emma in a way that she wasn't finding negative in the slightest. In fact, Emma felt almost relieved that she wasn't the only one who was noticing the growing bond between them, the way things seemed like they would be okay if they only faced it all together. On the other hand, Henry was _missing_ , taken by some psycho, and Regina was sitting here.. flirting.

When Emma's hand finally moved, it curled around Regina's, contrary to what the blonde had wanted. She wanted to push the woman away, to tell her that all of this could wait and that they needed to find Henry first and figure out who it was that was causing trouble and what they really wanted. But for a split second she wavered, "I feel safe with you too." Then, the world shifted as Regina leaned in, eyes half lidded as she neared the Savior's face. "But we need to find Henry."

Regina had been inches from Emma's face, prepared to.. Emma couldn't think to assume, not if she wanted to keep her mind off of the woman. Henry was most important, and stayed in the forefront of her mind. Whatever was wrong with Regina, Emma needed to be the strong one for the both of them now.

" _Ha!" Regina let out a triumphant cry as not-Emma extinguished the glowing orb that had been displaying the scene between Emma and the imposter Regina. Her look of victory replaced the distress that had been gradually gaining ground as she watched the Savior fall victim to her double's advances. It was unsettling to watch herself this way, to see herself saying and doing things she couldn't have imagined just a few days earlier. But watching Emma bring up her concerns for Henry and turn her down, though lending to a triumphant feeling that made it oh-so-sweet to see the scowl on not-Emma's face, also gave her a sense of clarity. Emma wasn't likely to respond to the real her either, she thought, and it made her chest feel tight._

" _You just wait", not-Emma cut into Regina's burgeoning self-pity, waving a careless hand. "We both know how you are, your Emma doesn't stand a chance." Regina's fingers twisted around the bars to her prison, glaring at the blonde speaking haughtily just beyond her reach._

" _Miss Swan is much stronger than you think, dear. And not quite so foolish that she would give into…physical sensation while our son is in danger." Not-Emma barked a laugh, "He's hardly in danger. In fact, he's right under your noses. You're just too slow to see it. But don't worry. When I'm out of here, we'll bring_ _ **our**_ _son back." Growling as she smacked the bars, Regina's eyes drilled into not-Emma with a force that might've killed her, if looks could._

" _He's_ _ **my**_ _son. And whoever you two are, you won't get away with this!"_

* * *

Emma kept her eyes on the road as she drove, heading for Gold's shop with Regina in her passenger seat. The moment between the two of them had stretched nearly to the breaking point, Regina with an injured expression and Emma praying for something, anything, to save her from the awkward situation. Salvation had come in the form of her ringing cell phone, which she grabbed at quickly. "That was fast", she murmured with surprise as the caller ID proclaimed that Gold's shop was on the other end. On the other end, Belle requested her presence, and Regina's as well. So, with a curious lack of argument from the royal, Emma gathered the two of them into her bug and headed out.

On the road, Emma thanked any power listening that Regina didn't try to speak again, unsure if she could have handled turning her down a second time. While a part of her was nervous after this brand new, far from shy, behavior, another part couldn't stop hoping that once everything settled down, they might revisit their previous encounter. Reaching the shop quickly enough, Emma entered with Regina on her heels, aiming for where Belle waited behind the counter. Rather than a book opened before her, as Emma had been expecting, on the counter lay a metal disk. As she neared, Emma noted the carvings filling every available space of the bronze colored surface.

"I'm glad you could come back so quickly", Belle said before flashing a smile in Regina's direction, "And I'm glad to see you're alright." Regina responded with a short smile, more interested in the disk as evidenced by her folded arms. "I might have found something." Emma's eyes searched surreptitiously for a sign of Gold, sure that he wouldn't have left Belle if he knew something big and dangerous was happening. "The story telling patterns are a little scattered, but if I'm reading this right", Bella gestured to a part of the disk at the upper right, running her finger along the curving lines and pictograms, "then this might be speaking of a bond forged by injury." The woman hesitated a bit, Regina lifted a brow, "Whatever you're thinking, spit it out." Belle paused for another moment before continuing, "Well, it's possible that this is also an ancient guide to surgery, but I'm fairly certain it's not literal enough for that."

The uncertainty was feigned, as Gold had suggested, for Regina and Emma needed to come to their own conclusions and beliefs for the bond between them to fully form. However, Belle had managed to convince the man to allow her to give the hint, at least, for which she was grateful. With the convinced man came the metal disk, very old and remarkably well preserved. He explained the purpose of the information, to speak of the dangers of interrupting the bond or attempting to forge one that did not happen naturally, from forces that could not be controlled by any hand weaker than fate itself.

"Oh, that's great. At least when we get injured by whatever new power is out there, the bookworm will know how to mend us." Regina scowled, arms crossed. The impostor Regina was uncomfortable with this, with the clever woman being any part of this. Pulling the wool over Emma's eyes was one thing, but attempting to fool another would be more difficult. Belle's eyes narrowed in Regina's direction, the woman burned to share more, but Gold had drawn her promise to allow the women to come together without outside interference. From the body language they were presenting, that wasn't far off, but the aggression they both tended to share could divert the purity of the bond, another danger outlined in the disk.

"Hey", it was Emma that came to Belle's defense first, but she was interrupted by the woman herself, needing no one to defend her.

"Look. If you want my help, then try to, I don't know, act like a person? How does that sound? I don't have to stand here and take this, you know, not after all I've been through because of you." Belle spoke harshly. Regina had the sense to appear scolded, as much as she could anyway. Giving in to the woman felt wrong, grating against her. But she comforted herself with the knowledge that soon enough she would be on the outside quite permanently, and fully in possession of the power to rule this pathetic town with her own Swan at her side.

"She's sorry", Emma said for Regina, shooting an exasperated look to the woman. The blonde thought that Regina had forged a sort of truce with Belle, apologizing for the horror she put her through, and therefore trying not to be too mouthy with the brunette. Granted, this wasn't entirely mouthy, but the tone in which she had spoken was dismissive, not just sarcastic, unlike the woman that Emma was used to. Something was wrong, but the Savior couldn't put her finger on it. Not yet. But she would.

"Anyway", Belle said slowly, returning her gaze to the disk. "It appears that odd behavior might be normal for this type of thing." A lie, one at which Belle cringed. What if there was actually something wrong with the woman? Her eyes flitted to Regina, standing with arms folded and a forbiddingly cold expression dominating her features. She didn't seem very strange, perhaps cranky, but if Emma was saying that she was acting odd..

"Is there anything about why?" Emma asked, leaning over the counter to get a closer look at the disk, though she had no idea what she was really looking for. "Or about disappearances?" There, that was the part that concerned Belle. When she shook her head, it wasn't a lie. The odd behavior didn't line up with the forging of the bond, and missing children most certainly didn't. But Gold had insisted that Henry was safe, that what was happening here was not violent. Belle had a hard time believing that with the way the worry lit up Emma's eyes, but she had promised. She trusted Gold, even if everyone else had a little trouble doing so.

"I'll keep looking for more answers, but all I have so far is that the bonding process can have side effects." It wasn't a lie, though it was a bit more than Belle assumed Gold wanted her to share. She had promised not to share details though, and that wasn't a detail.

"Side effects like what?" Emma asked. Regina struggled to remain calm at the blonde's side, not liking the way the conversation was turning at all. If it was revealed that the bonding process could create a split.. Belle gave a small shrug, much to the royal impostor's relief.

"I'm not quite sure yet, the translations are fairly vague, but I'm working on it." Belle's lies flowed ever more smoothly, leaving her feeling slightly dirty. "For now, I recommend going to the hospital to get checked out. Regina might have gotten hurt during her… disappearance." Belle didn't know what to call it, seeing as the woman was in front of her right now, but she adopted Emma's word. The blonde's eyes darted to Regina, her body shifting slightly into Belle's direction.

"You know, that's probably a good idea. I should have done that sooner." Emma scolded herself. "We'll do that, and then head down into Regina's vault to do some research of our own." She looked to the royal. "You were already looking for more info yourself, right? So it shouldn't be too hard to pick up where you left off." Regina nodded, keeping her mouth shut. "Alright, so we'll go do that. And thanks", Emma added as an afterthought, reaching over the counter to give the woman's hand a squeeze. Though this wasn't even her Emma, Regina felt jealousy clench at her belly. No one should be touching Swan but her.

"Let's go then. We're burning daylight." Belle's smile turned to a half scowl at Regina's prompting, frowning at the woman as she left. Emma shot her an apologetic smile before following the brunette out.

* * *

At the hospital, Emma paced the halls idly as Regina got checked out, only to be found by the same nurse who had refused to allow her to see her mother last time, getting herself banished to the waiting room. Leg bouncing as she slouched in a chair with a frown, arms crossed over her chest almost like a pouting child, Emma stared at the poster on the wall across from her, barely processing the reminder to get vaccinated. She hated needles. Getting a tattoo wasn't nearly as bad as getting vaccinated in her opinion though, at least the tattoo gun looked more like a paintbrush and less like a sharp metal object waiting to pierce helpless flesh.

David called out to the blonde from the door to the waiting room, snapping her from her daze and bringing her jumping to her feet to inquire after Snow. The man passed over baby Neal to his big sister so that his sore arms could take a short break, Emma's smile returned at the sight of her gurgling brother. Seeing the child, though she was thankful for the addition to the family, just served as a reminder of all those memories she would never have with baby Henry. And then Henry was again on her mind.

Pausing in his explanations of Snow's unmoving waking coma, David saw the conflicted worry on his daughter's face and asked after it, "Are you alright, Emma? You look a little more stressed than usual." Scoffing a short laugh at the man's ribbing, Emma's face then grew somber.

"Henry's missing, David. He's missing, and Regina's acting weird." The moment the words passed her lips, David was pulling up to stand straighter, alarm overtaking his expression.

"Wait, hold on, he's missing and you're here? And what's wrong with Regina? What happened?" Emma stroked baby Neal's cheek as she avoided her father's eye, working through one question at a time.

"He disappeared last night from Regina's place. I guess she thought he was in bed and then he wasn't. And Regina is just.. she's being strange." Emma's mind flashed back to the physical touches and the burning gazes that passed between her and the woman, she blinked to erase the images. "And then she.. I don't know what happened, but one minute she was there, and the next she was gone, but then she was just back again, totally different." Emma's low sigh of frustration, confusion and helplessness tugged at David's heart, a father who didn't know how to help his daughter. Emma's hand smoothed over Neal's fuzzy hair, already growing thick thanks to his parents' equally impressive locks. "We're here getting her checked out, just in case she was hurt or something. But I don't know.." Her eyes found David's. "I'm a little lost, dad. My kid is missing and his other mother is.. mostly out of commission." Even with the serious situation, David's heart swelled as 'dad' passed through Emma's lips, the sentiment was fairly rare.

"Don't worry. I'm here for you. And so is your mother. Or she will be soon, anyway." One large hand came up to cup his daughter's cheek, then both arms captured his first child holding his second in a hug. Emma, despite all that was coming to pass, gave herself a second to relax into the safety and security that accompanied the embrace.


	9. Chapter 9

Regina was quick to scold Emma with an 'I told you so' plastered clearly on her face when the results of her preliminary examination came back normal. It was relief more than anything that she was trying to disguise however, as medical tests hadn't been on her mind when she had taken the place of the original Regina. What would have happened to her if there was some sign that something was…off? Of course, now that a medical professional had been thoroughly fooled, it seemed rather ridiculous that she had been any sort of nervous. She was identical to Regina, after all, merely a bit wiser in her decision making.

"Do you feel up to doing some research now?" Emma questioned Regina's health still, despite what the doctor had said. While in her face she was Regina, there was still that certain something that felt not quite right, unsettled worry keeping Emma from truly believing that anything was okay. A part of the woman believed that perhaps she was acting strange because she was overstressed due to their still missing son, and that part spoke the loudest as she drove the two of them to the vault at Regina's assertion that she was absolutely _fine_ , thank you very much.

Down in the vault, Regina's eyes slipped frequently up from the books she was pretending to read to watch Emma, the Savior seemed to feel the eyes every time. Regina could see the tensing of the muscles of Emma's arms, the blonde had taken off the hideous leather that barred the glorious bundles of muscle from view. "You're the one staring this time", Emma attempted to tease, her voice coming out more strained than she would have liked. Regina was confused, the expression on her face saying as much with the barest tilt of her head and a lifted brow. "This time?" she questioned. Immediate alarm bells sounded in Emma's mind; if Regina was forgetting things that happened so recently, something was definitely wrong. Rather than pursue and alert the woman to her intense scrutiny however, Emma shook her head and waved a hand as she made to continue reading. "Nothing."

The false Regina watched the blonde still, though with a bit more discretion this time. What had just happened? It didn't feel good.

 _A loud shriek issued from the prisoner, bouncing off of the stone walls and returning swiftly to the ears of the two lone figures. "There isn't much of a difference in pain tolerance between the two of you.." Not-Emma noted thoughtfully, eyes fixed on the bleeding woman on the opposite side of the bars. Nearly an hour Regina had taken the magical lashing with no more than a grunt, but the last strike of the invisible whip had broken skin, hitting far harder than the comparatively playful beating that preceded it. The chains that stretched up from the ground gripped hard at Regina's wrists, forcing her into a kneeling position just beyond the bars separating her from the sadistic blonde._

" _You're psychotic." Regina muttered, throwing the best glare she could muster from under sweat soaked hair. Not-Emma gave a 'tsk' and held up a finger. "No, no, no", she corrected, "I'm a scientist." Regina forced a laugh. "Well now I_ _ **know**_ _you're not any sort of double of Miss Swan. She's certainly not the most scientific in her methods." Not-Emma scoffed as she knelt to Regina's eye level, tracing a finger over the red marks littering her bared back with a finger and prompting determined silence from the prisoner. "Well, that's where you're wrong. Science was our favorite subject in school. The only thing that held us back was not being too great at the math part." Shrugging, Not-Emma ran her finger over the lash mark that had split her skin, this time receiving the satisfaction of hearing a pained hiss from the bound royal. The blood that gathered on her finger, she sucked from the digit with a deep sigh before Regina's astonished eyes. Not-Emma grinned, licking the remainder of the red stain from her teeth. "You wouldn't believe the kind of kinks that growing up in a foster home can cause one to develop."_

 _Giving a sudden and hard tug at her chains, Regina shouted, "You're_ _ **not**_ _Emma!" The violent outburst startled the blonde imposter for a short second before pulling a laugh from her and a shake of her head as she straightened up. "No…" she responded slowly, "not_ _ **yet**_ _."_

Emma's head popped up from the book she was flipping through, attention turning to Regina. "Did you say something?" Regina merely mumbled a negative answer without looking up. Staring at the woman for a short minute, Emma's eyes then dropped to her ridiculously large book again. "I could have sworn I just heard you say my name." This made the false Regina pay notice, glancing up and mentally cursing Emma's double for not keeping the proper Regina silent. Didn't she know that the bond was only going to grow stronger until the Becoming? The carelessness irked her.

"I'm sure it was nothing, dear. Just a trick of the silence." Regina's smile felt forced, and Emma wasn't fooled by the feigned casual tone. She wanted to ask the woman directly what was happening, but at this point she was even sure that Regina realized something was wrong. Emma's thoughts turned back to Belle and the suspicions that had been planted in her mind. Possession? How would she even fight something like that? "Are you alright, Emma?" Regina's voice caught Emma's ear as she very nearly purred her name. It wasn't enough for Emma to call her out on it, but it was enough to notice, and that freaked the blonde out more than anything else had.

"Are you sure everything is okay?" Emma was asking before she could really think about it, cursing at herself mentally as Regina's face twisted in calculated confusion. Emma's fingertips tingled, and she couldn't ignore it. There was a lie here.

"Of course, Emma. I'm perfectly fine. Even the doctor said so." Regina answered firmly, continuing on when the Savior appeared unconvinced, "I'm just worried about Henry. Who knows where he is?" The distraction that the imposter Regina hoped the boy would serve didn't seem to work this time, as Emma approached, standing from her book and coming closer.

"You're lying", Emma stated, not even asking for affirmation of what she knew to be true. Brows drawing together as she drew near to the brunette, Emma took a good look at her increasingly worried expression, no matter that she was doing her best to conceal it. "There's something not right, and I've decided that it can't wait until later. Henry needs his mother back, right now." Regina stepped back as Emma stepped forward, keeping the distance between them at something like ten inches.

"Miss Swan-", the false Regina tried, but her voice broke. What was it affecting her? She was much harder, much stronger than this, but Emma's simple approach was throwing her, and the physical proximity was something that her body wanted, despite the reason. Her entire being had become accustomed to getting what it wanted, when it wanted, and this was only made worse by the consistent physical needs that were satisfied by the other Emma. The habit of self-indulgence was working against Regina at this precise moment, leaving her body giving its best effort at surrender as it might in the presence of her Emma. "Damn.." Panic clutched the false Regina's breast and in less time than a heartbeat, she disappeared.

Emma's hands grabbed at empty air as she became aware in a split second what Regina was attempting to do. Summoning her own magic deep within in an adrenalin fueled breath, Emma thought only of Regina and pulled herself through time and space to find her, having no idea where she would end up.

 _The shuffle of fabric and the smell of magic flooded the chamber and Regina could hear a low curse from Not-Emma and then a hushed conversation. An argument. It could only be her own double, so she taunted the two from her kneeling position, never one to truly be beaten down. "Already failed at your pathetic attempts at seduction? I'm not surprised. No one but me could really pull off this face. Or these curves. You-" A cry was forced from the royal as another hard lash came down on her back, followed by a shout to be silent. Fuming in her cell, held down to the ground by magical chains, stripped of her clothing so as to make the beating more of a humiliation, Regina was still not defeated. How many times had she been beaten figuratively and literally at the hands of her own mother? And she had survived that. How many times had a strike made its way to her even with her magical barriers and fighting prowess? And that too she had survived. Not so very long ago, she had taken more electricity into her body than most people could tolerate while keeping their mind intact, and even that had not broken her._

 _No, this would not be her end, not in any way._

" _You may break my body, but you will not break my soul!" Regina declared as loudly as she was able. Her face was quite suddenly jerked to the side by a firm grip, forcing her face to face with herself. The Regina double chuckled and hissed, "What soul?"_

Emma's body lingered somewhere, not quite solid, giving her a vague sensation of seasickness, or something of the like. She couldn't pinpoint any landmarks, nor could she really see, and the idea slowly came to her that maybe she had messed up. Maybe she really shouldn't have tried to transport herself at this point, at her skill level, without even a true destination in mind. But then it seemed that sensation began to return. Darkness, cold. Wherever she was coming back into being, it was thoroughly inhospitable, and her sole thought was to find Regina.

With a jolt, Emma was once again herself, surrounded by tall stone walls that stretched further up than she could see. There might have been a ceiling, but the wall sconces didn't provide nearly enough light to reach that far up. At her back was a wall, and at either side, but in front of her a hall went on until it hit a wall, hallways going off into either direction before similarly hitting turns, walls and dead ends. The familiarity of the situation struck her. She was in a maze, just like those she would spend hours trying to complete as a child living in a foster home with no television.

A tugging in her gut that felt like instinct pulled her one way, and a vague whiff of a familiar smell summoned her as well. Regina was here. She had to be. Emma pumped her legs as she took turns swiftly, moving on what she really hoped was instinct and not blind guessing. Regina was here, and she was going to find her.

 _Regina was quiet, listening intently to the conversation happening not two feet from her in whispers. While she couldn't make out any solid sentences, the royal would have bet her life that she heard the word 'Emma', and it didn't seem to be referring to the blonde already in the room. Her heart picked up a beat, had Emma discovered there was a problem? Was she coming now? Hope mingled with the ache brought on by the cruel reminder of her double, and the likely fact that Regina had given up her soul long ago. The woman hardened herself to the words, and to the memory, determined not to break. If Emma really was coming, she wanted to be sure that there was something left for the blonde to save._


End file.
